Mount Rushmore of NFL(-ish) Video Games

[MatthewToy]

I know this site tends to skew older so I'm not sure how many of the regulars are into video games but with the "Mt. Rushmore" things going around lately I felt this topic needed to be adressed. Thing is Mount Rushmore usually means top 4 and I can only think of 3.

Tecmo Bowl/Tecmo Super Bowl. Before 1988 there were no real decent football video games. Especially during the Atari era. Then the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in 1985. The original Tecmo Bowl only had 12 teams and they weren't real teams. But they had real players. Good game but it still felt incomplete. Then in 1991 Tecmo Super Bowl was released with all 28 NFL teams with full rosters and logos. Simple gameplay. 4 running plays and 4 passing plays. On defense you just had to guess what play the opponent was gonna run. Guess right, you stuffed them. Guess wrong, you could be in trouble. There were later versions on the Genesis and Super Nintendo which were fine but didn't match the fun of the original. The game is still popular today with tournaments and modified versions that can be played on computers and smartphones with not only current rosters but with older rosters going back to 1978. Ever wanted to replay Super Bowl XIII on TSB? You can.

John Madden Football. Easily the most famous (or infamous) series of NFL games. When Madden's good it's great. But the past decade or so hasn't exactly been the best for this series. But, it's all we got. I stopped getting Madden few years ago. As these games, and all games really, get more "realistic" the flaws seem bigger and takes away from the fun. The golden eras for this series were during the Sega Genesis days and in the mid 2000s in the PS2/Xbox era. Mainly because they had competition and had to be good. Who can forget the ambulance that would come out for injured players in Madden 92? Like Tecmo Bowl, it started out without real teams. Just cities. The New York Jets would be "New Jersey" and the LA Raiders, of course, were "Oakland". No player names either. Just numbers. My favorite version of the early days was a rental only game called Madden 93 Championship Edition. 38 Super Bowl teams in a tournament style playoff system. No season. Thing was it had losing Super Bowl teams and you couldn't choose the participants aside from your team. But if you're a fan of NFL history, like we are, it's a fun little game.

NFL 2K. This series started out on the not so popular Sega Dreamcast. After they stopped making that the series was made for the Playstation 2 and the Xbox. And that's where it flourished. While it took a couple years for the gameplay to match Madden's the graphics instantly surpassed Madden back in 2001. So we knew this game had promise. The series reached near perfection with the release of ESPN NFL 2K5 in the summer of 2004. It was released before that year's version of Madden. It was superior graphically. It had better gameplay, you had to mess around with the sliders to do so but still. It had a plethora of throwback uniforms to choose from. And to add a cherry on top it was $30 cheaper than Madden. Also had editable classic teams. To be fair Madden already had that but without the uniform choices to match. Games today can't have classic teams due to a lawsuit. Because lawyers ruin everything. The Xbox version of 2k5 is the one to get. The PS2 version is fine but they really pushed it for the Xbox. You could add music or sound effects to play over the stadium sound systems for certain situations. Missed field goals, sacks, third down incompletions, touchdowns, interceptions, etc. They fully incorporated the ESPN license with Chris Berman doing post game highlights and highlights from other games in the franchise mode. Trey Wingo talking about injuries and other news from around the league. Suzy Kolber doing post game interviews. The players never sounded like the real player but it was a start. And Mel Kiper analyzing the draft. This was, in my opinion, the best NFL game ever. It was so good EA Sports had to kill it by acquiring exclusive licenses for NFL logos, names, and players for the past dozen years with no end in sight. The negative effects are being felt to this day with subpar Maddens and no other alternatives.

There were other franchises like NFL GameDay in the ps1 that had their moments but didn't really pan out. So that's why there are only 3 real examples in this "Mount Rushmore"

[Bryan]

On my personal Mt. Rushmore, I played the heck out this one:



Super Sunday by Avalon Hill for my Commodore 64

[JWL]

Mutant League Football was not an NFL game so I do not know that it fits for this Mt. Rushmore. It was certainly one of the greatest football video games of all-time, however.

It was from EA Sports and used the Madden engine and was as tremendous as the early Madden games. Some of the teams and players were based on NFL teams and players. The Deathskin Razors had a quarterback named The Snake. Bones Jackson, Scary Ice and Mo Scary were also in the game. There was a team called the Sixty Whiners. Another was known as the Ice Bay Bashers. There was also a Coach Bricka who I believe was an amalgamation of George Halas and Mike Ditka. He coached the Midway Monsters.

Each team had special plays called Nasty Audibles. The Terminator Trollz had one where the ball carrier would pass gas on trailing defenders and knock them for a loop. This act would lead to big yardage, usually a touchdown.

Players could die by falling into pits of fire or by being pushed out of bounds and into outer space. Blowing up the halftime band was also fun.

It was a very enjoyable 16-bit game for Sega Genesis back when it was still possible to have an imagination while playing a video game.

[JohnTurney]

it was a computer game that only showed Xs and Os. You called the plays and the computer or an opponent called plays and the Xs and Os fought it out. It was the game NFL Films used to do their "tournament" in 1989 . .. it was featured in Dan Daly's book, Pro Football Chronicles.

[JWL]

All-Pro Football 2K8 was a very good game. It had old players in it along with generic players. It was not able to have active players due to Madden having exclusivity to them. The game did not do well for that reason even though it was very good for its time.

[MatthewToy]

All-Pro Football 2K8 was a very good game. It had old players in it along with generic players. It was not able to have active players due to Madden having exclusivity to them. The game did not do well for that reason even though it was very good for its time.

Never played it, but I've heard good things. In reality, though, it's really just NFL 2K's last gasp.

[JWL]

All-Pro Football 2K8 was a very good game. It had old players in it along with generic players. It was not able to have active players due to Madden having exclusivity to them. The game did not do well for that reason even though it was very good for its time.

Never played it, but I've heard good things. In reality, though, it's really just NFL 2K's last gasp.

Yes, it was basically a later version of ESPN NFL 2K5.

[Jeremy Crowhurst]

Accolade Mike Ditka Football, from the early 1990's. Much like what Madden would become, but a little more primitive. Had a lot of fun with that one.

I also really enjoyed NFL Head Coach, from 2006. You could custom design plays, just didn't have any control over executing them. Trades, hiring, firing... loved it.

[Rupert Patrick]

Pro League Football was a pretty good computer game, but it was better for simulating entire seasons in a short time. The guy who created the game, Dave Holt, is the guy who runs the computer simulations you hear about every year around the time of the Super Bowl where he has replayed the game 100K times and predicts Team X will win 58 percent of the time.

As far as Nintendo type games, John Elway football was pretty good as I remember it. Ten Yard Fight was a great arcade game, I don't know if the video game version was any good.

There was an arcade game in the late 70's early 80's which was a table top game (as opposed to a stand up arcade game) where you had a ball controller that you rolled to control the direction of the ball carrier, and the defense rolled their ball to move their men to try to catch him. I can't remember the name of that game but that was fun, and a lot of work because both sides were rolling their ball simultaneously.

[Mark Durr]

There was an arcade game in the late 70's early 80's which was a table top game (as opposed to a stand up arcade game) where you had a ball controller that you rolled to control the direction of the ball carrier, and the defense rolled their ball to move their men to try to catch him. I can't remember the name of that game but that was fun, and a lot of work because both sides were rolling their ball simultaneously.

Atari Football was the arcade game I think you're referring to. I remember it as a game of stamina more than anything -- the faster you rolled the trackball, the faster your X or O was on screen.